Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus was a late Jurassic sauropod. It was first discovered during Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh's famous "Bone Wars." Marsh discovered a skull of the beast in Colorado, and from this one bone he eagerly classified it as a new species in an attempt to beat out Cope. He then proceeded to idiotically place the skull on the body of an apatosaurus and call it a brontosaurus, opening a sardine can of confusion in nomenclature that would carry on even until today. Congratulations on your fantastic legacy marsh.

Brachiosaurus would've fed on leaves from the tallest of trees. It was able to reach them thanks to its enormous 32 foot long neck. The neck was so huge that each vertebrae was 3ft and 3in in length. This isthmus of an esophagus would allow it to reach higher than any other known organism. This neck was also incredibly heavy, so brachiosaurus needed some of the strongest front legs in the animal kingdom to keep it up. These front legs were noticeably longer than the back, and this sauropod needed the strong limbs to keep its body from collapsing, so Jurassic Park's famous bipedal brachiosaur is a little inaccurate.

Another striking feature of brachiosaurus, as you can see from the good doctor up there, was it's head crest. A wall of bone ran down the middle of the dinosaur's head, separating the nasal cavities. These huge nostrils would perhaps given the beast a good sense of smell, although what it would use this sensitivity for is unknown.

And that's it for today, next time will be about nasutoceratops, which will also be the blog's first ceratopsid.